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Friday, May 18, 2012

Zigzag Baby Quilt

Here is my latest quilt and incidentally Bloggers Quilt Festival entry. This is a quilt I started making on a whim a couple weeks ago. When I was at the Paducah Quilt Show I stopped by the Moda Bake Shop booth and they gave out little packs of 2 1/2 inch squares---I'm not sure if there is a name for these--don't most of Moda's pre-cuts have dessert names? Mini layer cake? No...it should be a diet layer cake! ;) Anyway, they were 2 1/2 inch squares from the line California Girl by Fig Tree Quilts. My first thought was, "Yay! Free fabric...how cute!" and my second thought was, "What the heck am I going to do with just forty-two 2 1/2 inch squares?" Thinking I probably wouldn't really be able to use them, I let my girls play with them on the ride home...and they had a great time...scattering them all over the car. Once we got back to Minnesota there were several quilts I needed to start working on, but I kept looking at that little pile of squares...trying to figure out what I could possibly make with them...this is what I ended up with:

I had been wanting to make some type of zigzag quilt for a while but I just hadn't gotten around to it. So I decided to cut my squares in half and arrange them into a couple of zigzags on a (surprise!) white background. I knew piecing the zigzags was out...unless I wanted my finished quilt to be microscopic. So I opted to applique the triangles to the single piece of background fabric. I first drew some guide lines with a water-soluble pen and then laid out the triangles. For the applique, I wanted to try something new.

While at the show I bought some Bo-Nash bonding agent (it's fusible powder). I had heard great things about it for repairing holes in quilt tops, but after seeing the demo at the show I was excited to try it for applique...I hoped it would be a quick and easy way to stick the triangles down before sewing. Once I figured out how to shake it on without the powder going everywhere, it did work like a charm! To make applying the powder easier, I folded a piece of paper in half, dumped a little of the powder in the crease and then used that to shake it into the space where I wanted it...that made it easier to control how much was applied and where it went. After I ironed it all down I stitched around everything with a blanket stitch.

When the top was all done, I decided it needed a cute matching back since the front was so simple. So I ordered this pretty aqua print from the line for the backing, and one of the green prints for the binding. Good job, Moda...your marketing is obviously very effective--you got me to buy more fabric I was never planning on buying! ;)

For the quilting on this one I planned on just doing this zigzag all over...I got a new right angle ruler at Paducah that I was dying to try out...and this was the perfect quilt for it. I drew some guidelines, but somehow it got a little crazy --some of the zigs and zags were different widths in a couple places. I'm still not sure exactly where I went wrong-- it isn't super obvious, but next time I will have to be a little more careful! The right angle ruler made it a snap though, it is my new favorite ruler!

Once this quilt was all finished, I congratulated myself on killing like 3 or 4 birds with one stone...I used the little squares, tried out the fusible powder, tested my new ruler, used a good excuse to buy more fabric...oh yeah and made a baby quilt that really needed to be done. That's like 5 birds with one stone! Yay! This quilt is going to be gifted to one of the six people I know who are pregnant with baby girls right now! Fun, fun!

Now, as always, check out all the amazing quilts at the Blogger's Quilt Festival!

Too many great quilts to see them all! Now that it's been narrowed down, you got my vote!!I love that you solved the dilemma of what to do with the tiniest of pieces!!(And forget what those tiny 2 1/2" pieces are but they were just released, is what I understood. Lucky you!